The opening of new stores, the rise in consumer spending and in the appetite for exercise in particular helped each of the five achieve growth rates of 3% to 33%. In comparison, consumer spending increased by less than 10% last year.
Decathlon remains the market leader and its revenue was one third higher in 2015 than in 2014, 411 million lei (EUR92 million). The significant increase helped it cement its leading position and put some distance between it and the rest of the retailers, whose sales are almost three times lower.
The sporting goods market in Romania is put at RON2.5 billion to RON3.5 billion, depending on retailer or market research company. The market is divided among specialist retailers like Decathlon, Intersport and Hervis, single-brand stores like Adidas and Nike, online retailers and hypermarket or supermarket chains.
“The market is dominated by specialist retailers, which have a market share of more than 30%. Hypermarkets, supermarkets, online stores and others compete for the rest. Many Romanians are still saying they buy their sporting gear from hypermarkets, which means the market is underdeveloped,” says Catalin Pozdarie, the Romanian executive who runs Hervis.
Hervis posted RON105.6 million sales in 2015, up 25% on 2014.
“Consumer spending continued to rise fast, so the business has increased at a higher rate than last year. There is still room for growth.”
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)